red and
breathless he hurried along. He stopped on hearing a newsboy announce
the last number of _Lutece_.

"Ask for the account of the trial to-morrow: The inquest by Paul Rodier
on the crime of the Boulevard de Clichy!"

The newsboy saluted Bernardet whom he knew very well.

"Give me a paper!" said the police officer. The boy pulled out a paper
from the package he was carrying, and waved it over his head like a
flag.

"Ah! I understand, that interests you, Monsieur Bernardet!"

And while the little man looked for the heading _Lutece_ in capital
letters--the title which Paul Rodier had given to a series of interviews
with celebrated physicians, the newsboy, giving Bernardet his change,
said:

"To-morrow is the trial. But there is no doubt, is there, Monsieur
Bernardet? Prades is condemned in advance!"

"He has confessed, it is an accomplished fact," Bernardet replied,
pocketing his change.

"_Au revoir_ and thanks, Monsieur Bernardet."

And the newsboy, going on his way, cried out:

"Ask for _Lutece_--The Rovere trial! The affair to-morrow! Paul Rodier's
inquest on the eye of the dead man!" His voice was at last drowned in
the noise of tramways and cabs.

M. Bernardet hurried on. The little ones would have become impatient,
yes, yes, waiting for him, and asking for him around the table at home.
He looked at the paper which he had bought. Paul Rodier, in regard to
the question which he, Bernardet, had raised, had interviewed savants
physiologists, psychologists, and in good journalistic style had
published, the evening before the trial, the result of his inquest.

M. Bernardet read as he hastened along the long titles in capitals in
large head lines.

"A Scientific Problem Apropos of the Rovere Affair!"

"Questions of Medical Jurisprudence!"

"The Eye of the Dead Man!"

"Interviews and Opinions of MM. Les Docteurs Brouardel, Roux, Duclaux,
Pean, Robin, Pozzi, Blum, Widal, Gilles de la Tourette"----

Bernardet turned the leaves. The interviews filled two pages at least in
solid columns.

"So much the better! So much the better!" said the police officer
enchanted. And hastening along even faster, he said to himself:

"I am going to read all that to the children; yes, all that--it will
amuse them--life is a romance like any other! More incredible than any
other! And these questions; the unknown, the invisible, all these
problems--how interesting they are! And the mystery--so amusing!"

JULES CLA